Database Systems

Session 17
Chapter 7 – Triggers
 Objectives

1 Know what is a trigger

2 Know why use triggers

3 Know components of triggers

4 Know how to create a trigger

 Contents

1 Trigger definition

2 Why use triggers?

3 Components of trigger

4 Trigger Guideline
 1. Trigger definition

A trigger is a procedure that is invoked by

the DBMS as a response to a special
change (insert, delete, update to a particular
relation or transaction end)
Triggers are available in most current
commercial DB products
Trigger carry out actions when their
triggering conditions are met
 Why use triggers?

Triggers can implement business rules

• E.g. creating a new loan when a customer’s
account is overdrawn.
Triggers be used to ensure data integrity
Triggers may also be used to maintain
data in related database tables.
• E.g. Updating derived attributes when underlying
data is changed, or maintaining summary data.
 Trigger components

Event (activates the trigger)

 A specified modification to the DB
• May be an insert, deletion or change.
• May be limited to special tables.
• The trigger may fire before or after the transaction
Condition (test whether the triggers should
run)
 A Boolean expression or a query
• If the query answer set is non-empty it evaluates to
true, otherwise false.
• If the condition is true the trigger action occurs
 Trigger components

Action (what happens if the trigger runs)

 A trigger’s action can be very far-ranging, e.g.
• Execute queries.
• Make modifications to the DB.
• Create new tables.
• Call procedures
 Trigger guideline

The key elements and the order in the syntax for

triggers:
1. The CREATE TRIGGER statement
2. The clause indicating the trigger event and telling
whether the trigger uses the database state.
3. A REFERENCING clause to allow the condition and
action of the trigger to refer to the tuple being modified.
4. A clause telling whether trigger executes once for each
modified row or once for all the modifications made by
one SQL statement.
5. The condition, which uses the keyword WHEN and a
boolean expression.
6. The action, consisting of one or more SQL statements.
 Trigger guideline

Example of trigger (in SQL Server):

1. CREATE TRIGGER NetWorthTrigger
2. AFTER UPDATE OF netWorth ON MovieExec
3. REFERENCING
OLD ROW AS Oldtuple,
NEW ROW AS Newtuple
4. FOR EACH ROW
5. WHEN (Oldtuple.netWorth > Newtuple.netWorth)
6. UPDATE MovieExec
SET netWorth = Oldtuple.netWorth
WHERE cert# = Newtuple.cert#;
 The options for trigger design

Synchronization of the trigger with the

activating statement
 BEFORE
 AFTER
Possible triggering events are:
 UPDATE
 INSERT
 DELETE
An OF clause is not permitted for INSERT and DELETE events;
these events make sense for entire tuples only
 The options for trigger design

There are two kinds of triggers

 Statement-level trigger: executed once for all
the tuples are changed in one SQL statement.
REFERENCING NEW TABLE AS newtuples,
OLD TABLE AS oldtuples
 Row-level trigger: executed once for each
modified tuple.
REFERENCING OLD AS oldtuple,
NEW AS newtuple,
Newtuples, oldtuples, oldtuple, newtuple can be used in
the CONDITION and ACTION clause
 The options for trigger design

Number of Activations of the trigger

 Once per modified tuple: FOR EACH ROW
 Once per activating statement (default).
WHEN clause is optional.
The action of trigger can consist of
multiple SQL statements, surrounded by
BEGIN… END.
 Trigger guideline

Example of trigger (in SQL Server):

1. CREATE TRIGGER AvgNetWorthTrigger
2. AFTER UPDATE OF netWorth ON MovieExec
3. REFERENCING
OLD ROW AS OldStuff,
NEW ROW AS NewStuff
4. FOR EACH ROW
5. WHEN (500000 > (SELECT AVG(netWorth) FROM MovieExec))
6. BEGIN
DELETE FROM MovieExec
WHERE (name, address, cert#, netWorth) IN NewStuff;
INSERT INTO MovieExec (SELECT * from OldStuff);
END;